I am a site owner for a military unit (we are going heavily to SharePoint.) We have SharePoint 2007 installed, and have no flexibility to add more web parts. We also have limited ability to customize site properties.

I would like to create a function for the boss (my commander) to display a weekly update to his unit. He is not highly technically proficient, so I'd like to create a form or maybe a simple rich text file that he can update, then for those words to display on the site's home page. This will need to be updated every week.

Any suggestions for out-of-the-box web parts that I can use to make this a reality?

Eric's suggestion for the Announcements list is good. In fact, you'll see the list web part for Announcements featured on many new sites because it's part of the Team Site template which is commonly used to create new sites or as a basis for custom site templates.

If you want to go a step further towards ease of use for your commander you could create a new site with the blog template. This seems like a perfect fit for the blog site template. Especially if the only thing you'd like to see on the site is updates from your commander, this template could be a good fit. It's preconfigured to show the latest update on the front page and provide an historical archive.

I think the best part of the blog template for your scenario is that your boss could publish to the blog from Word or Windows Live Writer. If you can install Live Writer, it's by far the easiest way to post updates to a SharePoint site. If you can't Word provides a comfortable editing experience for many who shy away from web tasks.

Sounds promising, thanks Tom! I haven't sat down to try it out, but can I display the blog post in a web part on the main site? I'll give it a try tomorrow.
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TimSep 15 '11 at 4:08

@Tim Yes. You won't be able to use a list view web part if it's on a different site, but the RSS Web Part or the Content Query Web Part (Server not Foundation) are two possible options for showing it on a different site.
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Tom ResingSep 16 '11 at 17:36